Elaine Miller desperately wanted to find a way to help her daughter, Hannah, endure an awkward and painful medical examination in which doctors insert a catheter into her bladder, inject a dye and ask her to urinate while being X-rayed.
The girl had been through the procedure four times by age 7, and she dreaded going through it again. So when researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine offered hypnosis, Miller welcomed the chance. “I had tried every angle I could to
If a runny nose and congested chest have you thinking of antibiotics, think again.
“For uncomplicated colds, zero are necessary; bronchitis, less than 10 percent are necessary; sore throats, maybe up to 10 to 15 percent of these patients need an antibiotic,” says Dr. Jim Wilde, pediatric emergency medicine and infectious disease physician at the Medical College of Georgia. “Ninety to 95 percent of all infections are viral or low-acuity bacterial infections such as ear infections
With more than 28 million Americans suffering from debilitating migraine headaches each year, employers also suffer through missed days from work and reduced productivity. However, Migraine sufferers who had surgical treatment reduced the amount of time missed from work by 73 percent, according to a study published in the January issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery® (PRS), the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). Additionally, surgical treatment
Researchers have shown a correlation between fast food, weight gain, and insulin resistance in what appears to be the first long-term study on this subject. The Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study by Mark Pereira, Ph.D., assistant professor in epidemiology, University of Minnesota School of Public Health, and David Ludwig, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Obesity Program at Children’s Hospital Boston, reported that fast food increases the risk of obesity and type 2
Children who appear to have higher levels of shyness, or a particular gene, appear to have a different pattern of processing the signals of interpersonal hostility, according to a study in the January issue of The Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
According to background information in the article, “Neuroimaging studies are beginning to clarify the relationship between the brain’s cortical and subcortical activity in regulating the emotional an
Drugs used to treat the tumors common in people with a disorder called neurofibromatosis 1 rarely work, and scientists now know why. The chemotherapy drugs target a group of related proteins, call RAS proteins, which are thought to be responsible for these tumors. But researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found that the disease affects only one member of the protein family, and it happens to be the one form of RAS that does not respond well to these particular tre
Overweight and obese women who take oral contraceptives are 60 percent to 70 percent more likely to get pregnant while on the birth-control pill, respectively, than women of lower weight, according to new findings from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center that will be published in the January issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology.
The study, led by epidemiologist Victoria Holt, Ph.D., M.P.H., a member of Fred Hutchinson’s Public Health Sciences Division, is the largest case
A dietary staple of India, where Alzheimer’s disease rates are reportedly among the world’s lowest, holds potential as a weapon in the fight against the disease.
The new UCLA-Veterans Affairs study involving genetically altered mice suggests that curcumin, the yellow pigment in curry spice, inhibits the accumulation of destructive beta amyloids in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients and also breaks up existing plaques.
Reporting in the Dec. 7, 2004, online
As a result of a worldwide cooperative movement, the absolute driving ban for people with epilepsy (PWE) has been lifted in Japan. Since 1960, people who have epilepsy have been banned from driving in Japan. A December article in the journal Epilepsia outlines the efforts and procedures taken to reinstate driving rights to people with epilepsy, a restriction affecting many epilepsy patients throughout the world.
According to experts at Johns Hopkins University, 86 drivers per year died
Birds that migrate early in the season may have a distinct advantage when it comes to attracting the opposite sex, say researchers from Queen’s University and the Smithsonian Institution.
And it’s all about the feathers.
Researchers were surprised to discover that the timing of a male songbird’s reproduction cycle affects the colour of his feathers and may have important implications for his success in attracting mates. When migratory songbirds raise their
Despite critics who say patients’ bills of rights laws are actually designed to protect health care providers, new research published in the current issue of the American Journal of Medicine found just the opposite.
“There is little evidence these laws have much impact on providers’ economic concerns,” said Mark Hall, J.D., professor of law and public health at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.
Hall reviewed managed care patient protection laws in
A new study says cancer surgery performed at a medical center designated by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) as a “center of excellence” is associated with less risk of death soon after surgery than if performed at a high-volume surgery center, but finds no difference in five-year survival rates. The full study will be published in the February 1, 2005 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. This study was supported by grants from the NCI and the Agency for
Report details the first approach in the U.S.
The U.S. government does not approve or control the “599 list” of non-tobacco chemical ingredients used to manufacture cigarettes. These additives, such as acetic acid (vinegar), chocolate, vanilla, and menthol are found in everyday foods. Scientists, supported by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), generally regard these substances as safe in foods, but the risks for smokers are not known after combustion in cigarettes a
A careful analysis of the timing of over a million deaths reveals no evidence that cancer patients can intentionally postpone their demise in order to live long enough to reach an emotionally significant or meaningful event, say scientists in the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center.
The findings, appearing in the December 22 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, run counter to the widely held belief that some people are able to “cheat deat
Ballet dancers’ brains reveal the art of imitation
Scientists have discovered that a system in our brain which responds to actions we are watching, such as a dancer’s delicate pirouette or a masterful martial arts move, reacts differently if we are also skilled at doing the move. The University College London (UCL) study, published in the latest online edition of Cerebral Cortex, may help in the rehabilitation of people whose motor skills are damaged by stroke, and suggests that at
The advice to ’sleep on it’ for a while isn’t a bad idea, according to a new study done in part by University of Alberta researchers. Findings published in the December Journal of Sleep Research show that there may be an advantage to dreams that occur for up to a week after a memorable emotional event.
A study conducted by the University of Alberta and the University of Montreal of 470 psychology students revealed that not only do remembered events influence dreams
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